H, I'm helping a family member setup a Pi streamer to replace a Chromecast Audio that runs through a cheap generic Dac into a NAD 3020. They already have a LMS Server to do the music (and spotify and castbridge to get the chromecast compatible), and we have a spare Raspberry Pi 3. I think I've decided on this DAC - 'ES9038q2m OPA1612 Op Decoder Digital broadcast board I2S 32bit/384K DSD128 for Raspberry pi' (one of my 'hobbies' is getting china tech) they've sold quite a lot and it has decent reviews and I prefer it to the HifiBerry using the old PCM5122's, I also like that the DAC can have an OLED connected directly to show what it's outputting.
I've done a proof of concept setup using a Pi Zero, a generic pcm5102 $6 dac and an oled (although this showed the 'input' from LMS not the output) and that was already a noticeable upgrade on the CCA/generic DAC so we reckon we can do even better.
The curve ball which seems difficult with nearly any DAC HAT, they want a COAX Digital in so they can feed their CD Player in at a later date, I'm really struggling to find anything to do that, only input stuff I can find is people using usb 3.5mm sound cards but they want a digital in then the Pi DAC can process it, any ideas? The other option which they're not sure about is a USB CD Drive, but they're worried it might not be optimised/balanced properly which could affect playback?
If this works out we'll be doing the same setup in another room to replace a Squeezebox Receiver, that will be fed into a Cyrus III Amp (although they're looking to sell their two PSX-R's as they could do with the cash).
I've done a proof of concept setup using a Pi Zero, a generic pcm5102 $6 dac and an oled (although this showed the 'input' from LMS not the output) and that was already a noticeable upgrade on the CCA/generic DAC so we reckon we can do even better.
The curve ball which seems difficult with nearly any DAC HAT, they want a COAX Digital in so they can feed their CD Player in at a later date, I'm really struggling to find anything to do that, only input stuff I can find is people using usb 3.5mm sound cards but they want a digital in then the Pi DAC can process it, any ideas? The other option which they're not sure about is a USB CD Drive, but they're worried it might not be optimised/balanced properly which could affect playback?
If this works out we'll be doing the same setup in another room to replace a Squeezebox Receiver, that will be fed into a Cyrus III Amp (although they're looking to sell their two PSX-R's as they could do with the cash).
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